Facebook Exploring Facial Recognition Technology

It is not just Apple that is having some fun with facial recognition tech. It appears that the most widely used social media platform in the planet is also busy experimenting with this technology, especially as a method for authenticating a user’s identity. This should prove useful for Facebook account holders, particularly in instances wherein people can not get two factor authentication SMS (when visiting another country or when situated in an area with no mobile coverage, just to cite a couple of examples), or when they can not access their personal inbox.

According to Facebook, the feature that is being tested is primarily for users who want to recover their accounts quickly. The social media giant then went on to explain that the facial scanning feature is meant to be made available only on handsets that users have already logged into. If the trials go well, the company will likely deploy this experimental feature to more users.

The last few years have seen Mark Zuckerberg’s company explore various ways in which to help its users recover accounts that have been locked. Some of them are rather quite interesting, like a feature that requests users to identify images of their friends as proof of their identity. Then there was that other time when Facebook tried to encourage people to identify a group of trusted friends who will be sent a code that they can use to access the unlocked account.

When Facebook started extensively using facial recognition tech, particularly in generating suggestions when tagging people on images, it had drawn some flak from a number of users. It bears noting though that for its latest foray into facial scanning territory, the objective is to help users, and not compromise their privacy. 

Of course, with any fresh new technology, there are bound to be questions. Just like with Apple’s Face ID tech, Facebook users will be wanting to know if facial scans will be stored, and if so, are they going to be saved in the cloud or in a server somewhere? And how safe is the storing method?

No identity verification system is ever perfect, but recent advances in technology have allowed us to explore new ways that are more secure than the last. It goes without saying that for hackers and identity thieves, they will always be trying to keep up with the technology in order to exploit any flaw. But as they say, the trick is in constantly evolving and always trying something new, which is something Facebook knows all too well.